Happy Friday, everyone. I don’t know about you but it has seemed like a rather long week to me! I am happy that today is Friday.

Yesterday’s food was a bit of an experiment. I’ve been feeling a little not so good lately, on and off for about a month. Yesterday I tried an experiment. I did not have a salad or beans, or other super high fiber foods – I was curious to see how I would feel the next day. Well, bad news. I felt better 😦 I am hoping this will not mean that I have to give up my awesome salads and my savory beans. Maybe it just means that I have to eat a little less of them and maybe I need some more bland stuff – like carb-o-rific bread! Who knows.

Yesterday I started the morning off with oatmeal.

I like having oatmeal in the morning, even if it is instant, because it usually keeps me pretty full. It is also a healthy option for breakfast. I had another bowl of instant oats this morning – even though I really wanted a bagel. (Maybe tomorrow!)

I had a second cup of coffee for a mid-morning ‘snack’. Weird, right? But it keeps me going until lunch – and that is always a good thing.

Lunch was not a salad. But I didn’t have any sandwich stuff at home, so I bought a sandwich at the caf at work:

This is my favorite sandwich option at work. It is a fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil / pesto sandwich. I love toasting it in the toaster oven because I love making the cheese melty. It makes the sandwich 1000X better!

The nice thing about the sandwich was that it kept me really full for the rest of the afternoon. I spent a couple of hours on a conference call, and I was craving a snack during and after it. But I had a feeling I was not actually hungry. I drank water and some hot tea instead.

Last night I went out to dinner with two of my good friends, Courtney & Roy. We went to Sophia’s Grotto at 22 Birch Street in Roslindale. For dinner I tried to stay away from raw veggies (this seriously breaks my heart) and other things that might contribute to my not so awesome stomach feelings. I decided to go with Ziti Boscaiola. The pasta came with sautéed mushrooms (one of my favorite things – I figured this would be ok especially since the mushrooms were cooked), prosciutto and asparagus tips. Everything was served in an amazing pink sauce. I loved this dish! It was not too rich – even though the prosciutto was cut in little cubes (I prefer thin slices) that at times could be just a little tough to get through – the veggies went a long way to making this a middle of the road dish, when it comes to richness. I would definitely order it again.

The atmosphere at the Grotto was really wonderful! Even though it is still October, we were in the midst of our first wintery storm. It was icing and later snowing that night – and Sophia’s was just the place to go! It was so warm and cozy. They brought out bread the moment we sat down, that was accompanied by an amazing bean spread (oops!  I couldn’t stay away from beans all day – but in small portions it was fine).

The only reason the great atmosphere worked against me was when I tried to photograph my meal -I needed a flash. But here is the (bad) photo:

I really liked Sophia’s a lot. Even though I was not in the mood to eat on Thursday night and I was not feeling great, I am so glad that Courtney and Roy convinced me to join them for dinner! Good food, great friends and a perfect setting for a cold wintery night in October. Thumbs up!

After carefully thinking about my food choices the day before, I woke up this morning feeling better than I have felt in a couple of weeks. Sigh. Who knows what’s going on – but I think you probably know that I won’t be giving up my salads any time soon. I’ll just have to come up with some other ideas for food, in addition to my salads. I’ll keep reporting and keep your fingers crossed that things continue to get better 🙂

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you have a great weekend. I’ll report back with the going ons for me and AFM.  Until then – stay warm and cozy!